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Drift

"..there are as many spaces as there are distinct spatial experiences"
- M. Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception

The distinction between "place" and "space" is slippery, though the distinction gives us some interesting things to think about.  For example, our memories of places may be "spaces".  In such a sense, the space of our memories would be the representations of places that we once experienced.

GPS data is also a representation of place.  What does GPS remember about a place?  It remembers a series of points on a three dimensional sphere.  These points form the representations you see to the right.  These images are the result of sitting stationary with a GPS receiver and plotting its perceived location every second for fifteen minutes.  As the receiver drifts, a representation of place is formed.  When we remove the knowledge of the place (the images without satellite imagery) we can let our imagination wonder in this new representation.

 

 

West Sunset Park